Thanks to a $2,500 grant from the Connecticut Center for the Book at Connecticut Humanities, the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library and its community partners will offer a Community Reads program to build community and literacy.

Partnering with the town of Old Lyme, Friends of the Library, Old Lyme Historical Society, Federation of Beaches and the Lyme-Old Lyme School District, the library will base its Community Reads program on Barbara Kingsolver’s book, “The Bean Trees.” The book explores themes of ethnicity, adoption, immigration, Native American heritage and the environment. Programs are intended to reach people of all ages.

This was one of 10 grants totaling $23,500 which the Connecticut Center for the Book awarded to libraries, nonprofits, community colleges and community groups from around Connecticut under its Community Reads initiative. The goal of the Community Reads program is to encourage residents from all walks of life to read and discuss books and the subjects they explore.

The library and its partners will host three facilitated book discussions accompanied by presentations on major themes in different locations in town. A legal expert will discuss immigration, a social worker will talk on adoption and a presentation with an environmental expert on nature, botany and the greening of America will be presented. The three programs will focus on the novel’s most prominent themes while drawing on the protagonist’s growing awareness of how all people are interrelated.

Connecticut Humanities launched Community Reads as the first initiative since becoming the new home of the Connecticut Center for the Book. The Library of Congress appointed Connecticut Humanities to manage the initiative after the Hartford Public Library relinquished administration of the center after 10 years of oversight.

Connecticut Center for the Book is a program of Connecticut Humanities that promotes reading, writing and Connecticut’s literary heritage. Our work fosters community dialog around civic issues and connects Connecticut citizens with resources on reading, writing and literature within the state and beyond. The Connecticut Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Library of Congress. For more information, please visit cthumanities.org.

The programs are free and open to the public. The Library is located at 2 Library Lane, off Lyme Street, Old Lyme. Winter hours are Monday and Wednesday, 10am to 7pm; Tuesday and Thursday, 10am to 6pm; Friday, 10am to 5pm and Saturday, 10am to 4pm.